According to the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), it is comparing and verifying the revenue receipts from the mining industry.
This was said by Hassan Mahmud, commissioner of the RMAFC, on Thursday in Kaduna during a discussion about the commission's 2022 nationwide monitoring of revenue collections from the mining industry in Nigeria.
Mahmud claimed that 25 companies in the industry owe the government around N482 million in unpaid royalties.
He omitted to give the names of the companies, though.
Mahmud claims that the commission has the authority to keep an eye on all extractive industry revenue accruals in order to guarantee quick and accurate transfers to the federation account.
He added that the monitoring was a continuation of the 2016 exercise to determine the obstacles preventing the sector's best possible income collection.
Mahmud claimed that phase II of the surveillance includes revenue collection efforts as well as miners' operations in state and local government councils.
The outcomes of the 2016 exercise will be discussed with stakeholders, he continued, in order to provide solutions to the problems that had been identified.
He claims that the six firms that did not cooperate with the NEITI audit and did not give any data are the main concerns for the commission in the NEITI 2020 report.
Mahmud added that the non-responsive businesses lost N54.25 million in sales, and that the number of defaulting businesses will be determined following dialogues.
“There is also the issue of underpayment of royalty by 25 enterprises that exported minerals in 2019 with no record of royalty payments,” he said.
“These companies owe the government about N482 million in overdue royalty.
“There is equally the issue of N2.76 billion outstanding liabilities against 2,119 mining companies nationwide, which arose from the failure to pay the annual service fees for their respective mineral titles.”
Mahmud also said the commission’s mandate in the extractive sector was to recover the established liabilities owed to the federation account.
On his part, Muhammad Sa’idu, commissioner for finance in the state, said there was a need to address the enormous challenges of dwindling oil prices, drop in government revenues, COVID-19, insecurity and other barriers.
He also said sourcing for a quick alternative to all income was necessary and could not be overemphasized.
“Government revenue inflows will surely be boosted if this sector is vigorously harnessed,” he said.
Sa’idu added that the state government, under the current administration, had initiated a strategic mineral development plan to exploit the solid minerals sector hence the establishment of the Kaduna Mining Development Company.